"Contrast of Sinai and Zion"

  "You have not come to a physical mountain, to a place of flaming fire, darkness, gloom, and whirlwind, as the Israelites did at Mount Sinai. For they heard an awesome trumpet blast and a voice so terrible that they begged God to stop speaking. They staggered back under God's command: "If even an animal touches the mountain. it must be stoned to death." Moses himself was so frightened at the sight, he said, "I am terrified and trembling."

 "No, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to countless thousands of angels in a joyful gathering. You have come to the assembly of God's firstborn children, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God himself, who is the judge over all things. You have come to the spirits of the righteous ones in heaven who have now been made perfect. You have come to Jesus, the one who mediates the new covenant between God and people, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks of forgiveness instead of crying out for vengeance like the blood of Abel." (Hebrews 12:18-24 NLT)

"Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not; behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped." (Isaiah 35:3-5 KJV) 

 So, last night I was reading to my wife about Hezikiah's sickness; which reminded me of the beginning of this blog, having used that to illustrate God will, verses, God's perfect will. Having discovered several different points of view on that subject, I had reached the determination that God's will is always perfect; He never makes mistakes, and He is always working out His perfect plan, whether or not we even know what it is that He is doing.

 The thing about Hezikiah's sickness, which was a question of whether or not God changed His mind: it has been made abundantly clear to me that He worked everything out as planned. If you know the whole story, the 15 years that He gave Hezikiah were meant for something totally different; as the children of Israel were not keeping the command that God gave them for resting the land.

 It was Hezikiah's actions after being healed that put everything in motion; as it was, he had some Ambassadors from Babylon visit him, and he was showing off all the treasure; which set up the reason that Babylon would one day take all the treasure and exile his sons.

 With that, I was reminded yesterday about a certain thing the mother of John and James asked Jesus, that her two sons could sit, one on His left and one on His right, in His Kingdom. She was one of the women that were at the foot of the cross, when Jesus was crucified between two other men. In that moment, she felt glad that Jesus didn't grant her wish...

"But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able." (Matthew 20:22 KJV)